Computer systems store files and allow users to process those files. The display of the names and other information about files stored on a computer system may be made via a user interface provided by an operating system. Because the number of files stored on a computer system can be significant, various ways of organizing the files stored on a computer system have been employed to make it easier for a user to locate file.
For example, the conventional Windows XP operating system employs a hierarchy of folders containing files assigned by users or application programs to one of the folders. This allows files to be logically grouped in a manner that facilitates locating any such file.
Although this approach facilitates the location of files from the many files that are stored on the computer system, the user must locate the files in the hierarchy, a cumbersome task. To simplify the task of locating the most used files, some operating systems such as Windows XP, allow users to define shortcuts or other desktop icons that will remain on the operating system “desktop”, which is the main screen displayed by the operating system from which files may be located. Because the shortcuts are on the desktop, they may be accessed by clicking on them, without searching through any hierarchy, an arrangement users find far more convenient than searching for files through layers of a hierarchy and then accessing the file by clicking on it. When a user clicks on the shortcut to the file, the operating system will then start the application program associated with that file and cause the application program to open the file. Although some shortcuts have to be set up by the user in advance of their use, if the file will be used a number of times by the user, it can be worth the overhead of arranging the shortcuts onto the desktop.
Although the number of shortcuts that can be displayed on the desktop is limited by the size of the desktop, a user can place onto the desktop a shortcut to his or her most-used files, simplifying the process of accessing the most used files, while allowing the user to use the more-cumbersome hierarchical search method for other files.
Another way of making the most-often-used files and other files easily accessible to users is to employ a certain folder that can be used as storage for documents not already categorized into another folder. For example, the conventional “My Documents” folder can be used as a storage area of files that the user uses most often or to which easy accessibility is desired. When the file will no longer be used as often or easy accessibility is no longer needed, the file may be stored in a different folder. This allows files most often used and other files to be stored in a central location, freeing the user from having to remember various locations of the most frequently used documents and other documents to which easy accessibility is desired. However, users may wish to employ the hierarchical structure of folders to store even frequently used documents, or the use of such hierarchical structure may be needed for other purposes, such as a result of the use of a server or to allow others to easily access the files.
Files to be processed by a computer system may reside on another computer system accessible via the world wide web. Here again, it can be helpful to allow a user to store the name and URL of web sites most frequently used, or those which may not be frequently used, but web sites the user would like to store for future reference. Thus, a folder of files that describe the name and URL of websites, known as the Favorites folder, may be maintained by the user using a conventional browser by using the browser to visit the site and then storing a name for the site and the URL into a Favorites folder using a command or button on the browser.
There have been developed certain devices to allow files to be transferred from one computer system to another. Conventional disks allow the transfer of files from one computer system to another. USB tokens, which are key chain-sized nonvolatile solid state devices that store significant amounts of files, have made it possible to transfer significant amounts of data through a small device that plugs into a conventional USB port and appears to the user as another disk drive, have made it easy for a user to transfer files from computer to computer in a physically secure fashion without having to transmit potentially sensitive files over a network such as the Internet.
However, the transfer of files to such devices can be a cumbersome task, requiring the user to manually locate needed files in the hierarchy of files, or give up the organizational benefits of the hierarchy and manage all needed files in a My Documents folder to allow the entire folder to be transferred, both of which are time consuming, cumbersome processes that must be repeated each time files are to be transferred to the device.
This cumbersome approach has kept such devices from realizing their full potential for reasons other than the transfer of files containing documents and other information a user may process. For example, conventional browsers store the URL and name of favorite web sites into files, which could be transferred from the computer system to a device and transferred to another computer system for use thereon, allowing access to the user's favorite web sites no matter which computer that user was using. But such transfer is cumbersome. If the user wishes to copy such files to such a device, the user must locate them in the hierarchy and copy them onto the device, then copy them into the proper folder of the other computer system, adding more time and another task to the use of such device.
Once the user copies the files to the device, the user's problems are only beginning. The use of the files on the device on a different computer system remain cumbersome. The organizational structure of the files that were transferred is lost, unless the user takes the time to reproduce it in the device, something users do not wish to take the time to do. Even then, the nomenclature of the file structure may be unfamiliar to the user unless the user reproduces the file structure exactly as it is arranged on the computer system from which the files were copied. Even then, the user will lose access to the all of the shortcuts, unless the user arranges them on the computer system to which the device has been transferred, a time consuming, cumbersome task that users will not perform, especially if the use of the device on the second computer system is expected to be temporary.
Another problem with a user who visits a computer system setting up shortcuts or favorite web sites on the computer system being visited using a portable storage device is that any existing shortcuts or favorite web sites that existed on the computer system before the user arranges them can interfere with the number of shortcuts that can be placed on the desktop without excessive clutter, or favorite web sites that can be displayed in a manner that can be easily located.
Furthermore, once the shortcuts and favorite web sites are set up on the computer system, they must be removed or they will remain on the desktop or list of favorite web sites. A user who only briefly visits a computer system would also have to remove all shortcuts added to the computer system and remove favorite web sites from the list of favorite web sites to show consideration for any other user of the visited computer system and optionally, to protect the security of the names of the shortcuts and the favorite web sites the user had installed. If the user manually attempts to install and then remove shortcuts and favorite web sites, the user may accidentally remove any of these that had existed on the computer system before the user installed his or her own, interfering with the operation of the computer system by the user who had installed the original shortcuts and favorite web sites that may be accidentally removed. For all of these reasons, potable storage devices are inconvenient to use.
The conventional MyCompanion product commercially available from the Web site of mycompanion net, which appears to have been announced on May 24, 2002, attempted to solve these problems by creating for the user of a portable storage device a temporary account on a Windows XP machine, and recreating the user's desktop, favorites and MyDocument settings onto that temporary account, and then switching to that account. Favorites and MyDocuments can be copied from a regular computer system and installed with shortcuts so that the user can use the computer system in a manner that is similar to that from which the favorites and MyDocuments were copied. However, the MyCompanion approach works only on operating systems that allow multiple accounts to be set up, excluding Windows ME or Windows 98, for example, and only then on computer systems that have enabled the administrative privileges that allow the initiation of new accounts. This can severely limit the number of computer systems on which MyCompanion can be used. Because a user would not know in advance whether the computer system which he or she may be visiting will have the capabilities needed to use the MyCompanion system, the user would not have any confidence that the system will be available when that user needs it, eliminating much of the value of the system.
What is needed is a system and method that can allow certain files stored on a portable storage device to be installed as desktop icons such as shortcuts on a computer system without interference from other desktop icons already on the computer system, can make it easy to find files transferred on the portable storage device, can allow the use of favorite web sites from one computer system by another, without requiring a user to manually set up the desktop icons for the files, without requiring the user to manually arrange the files, without requiring the user to manually transfer favorite web sites to the device from the user's computer system and then transfer them from the device to the computer system being visited and that can easily allow the user to remove the desktop icons and list of favorite web sites that had been installed and restore the desktop and list of favorites to their appearances prior to the installation of the desktop icons and favorite web sites from the portable storage device.